Accessing Home Music Over the Web

[crees!]

I'd like to be able to search my music via the web and also be able to download selected songs/albums. I'm not sure where the "access point" will be. If that's directly entering the IP of my computer or connecting via my website.

Computer Accessing Content -> Personal Website Interface Requesting/Displaying Content -> Home Server

Would having a website as a "middle man" add a (small) layer of security? I could see where response time could slow as it's not a direct connection. SJ demoed .Mac where when you're dynamic home IP changed it would notify the server what the new address is. I'm thinking of something like that. Are there any apps that could be loaded locally or is this something that could be written fairly easily with a few lines of code?

I'd also like to be able to ZIP files if more than 1 track is requested. Is this something where you can access the Mac's internal apps to do? Via a scripted terminal command?

What are your thoughts on this in general and any technical hiccups you may foresee?

 

[jsw]

This is absolutely possible, although the details are a bit complicated.

Basically, you can set up Apache to serve any folder, including your iTunes one, which means you could access all of your music, movies, etc. while away.

You can use a service like DynDNS.org's free dynamic address so as to always be able to access your Mac.

You can use security to require a login and password, and you can use a non-default port (not port 80) to log in as well.

So, yes, it's possible. A bit of work, but possible. I used to do it. At least you'd be able to see the directories. Seeing them in a fancy page would be more work but not incredibly difficult.

Zipping them up is also possible but more complicated, and the bandwidth savings would be negligible at best.

 

[crees!]

Jinzora

Actually, I just came across this from LifeHacker. Seems this might be a solution and would require less work.

Jinzora

 

[crees!]

Zipping them up is also possible but more complicated, and the bandwidth savings would be negligible at best.

The only purpose of zipping would to be able to download a record with one click instead of say, 12.

 

[macuser9214]

http://www.codewave.de/products/mytunesrss/

 

[OutThere]

Friend of mine put together a collection of scripts called 'Machete' a few years ago, worked pretty well for playing with each others' music in the dorm before iTunes had network streaming.

Anyway, it's pretty simple:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16424